Photo How To

Next to your camera body, the lenses you use with it are your most important photographic purchases. While physically, a lens is just a collection of glass or plastic elements held precisely in position in a light-tight tube, with a camera mount on one end and some means of focusing, creatively it's your...

There are lots of special-effects accessories on camera-store shelves, and they are well worth checking out if you're into special effects. But you don't need a lot of fancy accessories to create some interesting and unusual photographic effects. In fact, if you have a basic SLR (single-lens reflex) camera—film or digital—there are several special effects you can produce with no...

As the subject of a photograph, texture speaks to our sense of touch. The way that things feel is very ingrained in our consciousness. Texture tells us about the nature of a subject, whether it's the rough surface of a straw hat, or the silky smoothness of satin. The light that reveals an object's texture also gives us a sense of...

According to nature photographer David Schultz, "Spring and Fall are my busy times for picture-taking." Aspen and maple trees adorned in fall colors are big sellers at West Light Images, Schultz' photo gallery located in Park City, Utah. People also enjoy decorating their walls with spring wildflowers, he observes.

1. Sun Stars
Your wide-angle lens at its smallest aperture can turn the sun into a star in your photos—fitting, since the sun actually is a star. The effect occurs because the tiny aperture diffracts the incoming light rays a lot. This diffraction causes the star effect. You can include the sun as a compositional. Photo by...

There are a number of ways to portray "heat" in a photograph. First of all, you can use color. Perhaps more than any other design element, color determines the mood of your pictures. You can establish the entire mood of your photo by emphasizing a particular color scheme—reds, golds, and oranges are...

1. Magic Moments
It's not just a summer thing, because a photographer should always be on the lookout for those intriguing sights of life being lived, but summer seems to produce more of them. Put your camera in full-auto mode, stay alert, and fire away when you come across something neat, be it people at work or...

It seems that everywhere you look, you see nature photos that include water in its many forms, whether they're waves crashing on a rocky coastline, snow on a hillside, dewdrops on flower petals, or a simple ripple on a pond. For outdoor enthusiasts who enjoy taking pictures of water, the possibilities are...

Adding a filter or two to your camera bag is a quick and relatively inexpensive way to improve your photos

How can you tell if you need filters? Take this quick test: Do you take photographs? If the answer is yes, you very likely need some filters to get the best possible images. Here are some that can really improve many of your future photos.

You've probably seen the photos of these exquisitely sculpted sandstone buttes; like colorful waves set in stone. You may have assumed--as I once did--that this area was part of some out-of-the-way corner of a national park.

For a long time, I couldn't find much documentation on this region, nor any information in guidebooks of the...

One of the most common bits of advice drummed into new photographers is "get closer to your subject!" In that context, it means that novice shooters generally shoot from too far away, so their subject is lost among all the other stuff in the...

When a photo emphasizes a particular color, it often dictates the mood of the picture—be it warm or cool, bright or muted. Blue is usually associated with soothing, cool and more-somber moods. Conversely, the color red conjures up emotions like passion, heat, love, and even anger.